The International ARC Awards have awarded The Saudi Investment Bank’s (SAIB) Integrated Report 2018 the Grand Award for the Best of International Annual Reports. The best of Gold awards across all categories compete for Grand Awards which are popularly dubbed the ‘Oscars’ of Annual Reports.  Notably, SAIB’s integrated report 2018 is the only annual report from the Middle Eastern region to receive a coveted Grand Award. This rare accolade won by a Saudi Bank is an indicator of the changing reporting landscape in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which is increasingly positioning itself as an attractive destination for Investment.

The Grand Award that the Bank has been crowned with considers a 360 view of its annual report. That includes the robustness of the financial data, the quality and extent of the non-financial data including ESG data, the clarity and lucidity of the writing, the appropriateness of the design, and the effective use of digital channels. Chiefly, SAIB’s comprehensive end-to-end HTML on-line annual report not only caters to the information needs of diverse stakeholder groups but also provides readers with a holistic understanding of the company and its performance.  In addition to the Grand Award, SAIB’s 2018 Integrated Report also won Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honours awards for various specific aspects.

This is the 33rd Annual International ARC Awards. It is the most sought after and prestigious international awards scheme for annual reports. This year there were over 2,000 entries from nearly 40 countries around the world. Only the top 30 percent of all entries qualify for any sort of an ARC award, given its stringent criteria and multi-level judging process using a wide array of over 30 distinguished judges from around the world.

Commenting on the awards, SAIB’s CEO Faisal Abdullah Al-Omran stated, “This win places SAIB in the ranks of ARC Grand Awards alumni such as IBM of the USA, Daimler AG of Germany, and WPP of UK. It also gives us further motivation to elevate our standards of reporting giving equal emphasis to financial as well as non-financial reporting. We have been always conscious of communicating effectively with our stakeholders and this Grand Award validates our efforts and provides us with a sense of direction for our annual reports in the years to come.”

The Saudi Investment Bank (SAIB) started operations in 1977. The Bank provides conventional and Shariah-compliant banking facilities within Saudi Arabia.